#the man has a physical form???

[thekingofchungus]

incredibly fucked up candy

[arthur-lesters-right-arm]

[mamawasatesttube]

kon canonically goes to clark just to bitch about his rogues gallery and you people have the audacity to suggest they have a bad relationship. smh

[serpentface]

does rabies play a role in wardi perceptions of dogs?

Yes it does for sure

Mentioned this briefly in another post, but rabid animals are interpreted as being animals that have killed and/or eaten a person and are now possessed by their ghost (who has been prevented from moving on to the afterlife through their corpse's desecration and consumption, and twisted into a very powerful evil spirit). Being bitten by one may pass the spirit on to the bite victim.

The animal, whose body has been ravaged by the physical disease enabled by possession, soon dies, and the bite victim is now possessed by the same evil spirit (which has taken on traits of their host animal via inhabiting its body). Victims of bites who start exhibiting symptoms will VERY often commit suicide or be killed by others, to the point that human deaths directly due to rabies running its full course is relatively rare- one who is fully possessed by an evil spirit has their afterlife in jeopardy and will likely be trapped as a wandering ghost under the spirit's control, and killing oneself before the possession fully takes hold will be preferable to most. It's better than a tormented eternity as a soul trapped in the world of a living, deprived of rest among loved ones and God's full domain in the afterlife.

Feral dogs are by far the most frequently encountered rabid animals and are uniquely associated with this type of possession, sometimes to the point that most other rabid animals encountered are assumed to have themselves been bitten by feral dogs (ie a beloved and well bred hunting dog who becomes rabid certainly has not eaten human flesh, so must have been bitten by a feral dog (which, in practice, is often correct)),

This heavily reinforces cultural disdain for feral dogs as all-around unlikable, unclean, diseased animals, and bites on humans (whether actually by a rabid animal or not) will often be responded to by mass localized culls. In villages, towns, and small cities, this is usually done by members of the public, but most major cities have specially devoted dog hunters who respond to reports of possible rabid animals, other problem dogs, and potential man-dogs (see next paragraph). In Godsmouth, this position is of enough importance that a certified dog hunter will be issued their own firearm, which they can legally carry while out on culls.

This is also the source of regional lycanthrope-esque folklore- someone who becomes fully possessed and is strong enough to fight off the physical disease associated will now become completely under the control of a doglike evil spirit and behave like a vicious wild dog, becoming a man-dog. (In reality, there is no rabies vaccine here and someone who has been bitten by a rabid animal has virtually no chance of survival unless they are lucky enough to avoid the infection to begin with).

Most variants of the folklore include that the possessed human physically transforms into a dog (depending on folklore this is either permanent, or the man-dog is human during the day and a dog at night). The man-dog then wanders at night, killing people and livestock as their possessing spirit compels them. Man-dogs do NOT spread their possession or create other man-dogs via bites, but are instead dangerous as particularly violent and bloodthirsty beasts that kill at random and mutilate the bodies of their victims.

Man-dogs may mate with normal feral dogs. The resulting pups are mundane, but assumed to be unusually powerful and vicious. In theory they should be killed, but believed man-dog feral pups are sometimes adopted to be kept as guard dogs, to be used in combat, or for dogfighting.

Vagrants (especially those that are mentally ill or otherwise have difficulties with communication) unlucky enough to be caught up in a man-dog scare may be accused of being the beast in human daylight form, and become victims of mob violence. Actual dogs accused of being man-dogs are usually not rabid (a man-dog would have fought off the physical disease and not exhibit symptoms), but rather healthy and notably aggressive individuals, especially those known to have attacked or killed people. There are no surefire visual methods of identifying a man-dog, though a dog having particularly human-shaped eyes is compelling evidence.

Note my dog's relatively narrow, humanlike eyes, visible whites, and haunted, distant gaze. This may very well be a man-dog.

Once killed, a man-dog (whether in human form or dog form) should be buried in barren earth (which prevents spiritual contamination and 'traps' the spirit in the ground) and the ground should be consecrated by a priest to prevent any chances of the spirit wandering further. Anyone who has touched the body should undergo a full purification and blessing to remove any lingering attachments and impurities.

There are also (rarer) man-lions, man-wolves ('wolves' here are naturalized wild descendants of ancient domestic dogs), man-jackals, man-hyenas, man-king hyena, etc. An individual wild predator that is NOT rabid but shows an uncharacteristic propensity for killing and eating people is often assumed to be a possessed and transformed person. These wild variants are equally feared, but may garner a sort of terrified respect and awe that is not afforded to man-dogs.

This is especially the case for man-lions (given lions are highly venerated animals in this cultural sphere). They will be hunted and killed just the same as other assumed man-beasts, but their bodies may instead be cremated with the same full rites as a human- a proper funeral as an act of respect for the slain foe may cause the man-lion spirit to be soothed and to favor its killers, and remain as a localized guardian, patrolling its territory like a lion and fighting off malicious spirits and living man-beasts. This specific treatment is unique to lions, as they are the only potential man-eaters widely held as sacred, and this sacred quality may allow the evil of their possessing spirit to be tempered and shifted into benevolence via proper respect.

[ellieellieoxenfree]

insane to me that in all the time people have been feeding me jiang cheng propaganda, no one told me that man is a single PTA mom to the core

[mousemannation]

[x]

[seaglassdinosaur]

It’s the fact that he didn’t have to be miserable.

All of his agonies about his weakness and monstrousness and lack of control was self-constructed, self-inflicted and he didn’t need to be miserable.

[askthebadkidz]

Hot take I Think if Sklonda heard Pok tell Riz that work is his version of love she would have decked him so fast.

-Mod Fig

[squeakadeeks]

last night i had a very realistic dream that Sulu was working as a manager at costco and i dont know what to do with that image

[witchofthesouls]

Archivist Ultron love it. Help him his metal ass is tormented by the horrors

Vision: How you doing?

Ultron: *knees deep in dirt observing insects and archiving* T̶͚͙̂̈h̵̯̚ẻ̴͖ ̶͇͔́̾h̸̨͒͛ͅo̷̥̒r̵̢̬͗r̶̯͝ö̵̹́ŕ̸̯̚͜s̷̨̤̾̃ ̷̲̑ṕ̵̜̊e̵̲̔̍r̵̼͗̊s̵̫͘i̸͈͛̈́s̷̠͎̾ṱ̴̪͌͘ ̵̤͝b̸͙̾͐u̶̬͂͠t̴͍̀ ̴͓̬̿͝s̶͕̪̈́o̸̟̞͊ ̶͔̤̽d̷̹̄ọ̷͕̍͠ ̷̥̐͜i̸̥̝̓͌

Vision: Kay great

Also

Ultron: Did you know a god of destruction is our planet core

Avengers: No??

Thor: I did

Stark: You're not human you don't count

Ahhh, Thor wouldn't know. He's not very deep into history besides the successful military campaigns. Loki could probably feel something in the roots as he travels through pockets.

Tony Stark wouldn't know what to do with Ultron's weird interests but to throw more into it. He's the kind of parent that may not like nor understand their child's interests, but he's throwing his spirit into it.

Vision would be fascinating to Gaea because <mine. Mine. MINE. You are me. I am you. Echo of myself/progenitor/brothers. We are bound for Eternity. >

She would probably put Vision near the other Infinity Stone because she likes the resonance they emit.

Stark is in the background with confused emotions because Ultron is becoming more and more like a hoarder of knowledge, like the owl spirit in Avatar the Last Airbender. He actually wants a movie marathon, but he has no idea if Ultron will take ideas from said cartoon owl spirit and do a kidnapping spree to collect indigenous oral traditions and language preservation.

[queen-mabs-revenge]

there is something so exceptional about the audio form and the kind of...meta-narrative (?) of horror it creates that really leapt out at the end of this re: dracula episode (25 Sept).

seeing the runtime of each episode sets the scene - 27:06? ok, i'm in for something here -- we have a few, uhhhhh, long-winded characters in rotation so it might not be an eventful something, but at this point in the story, we've already been gutted by episodes with longer runtimes so just glimpsing the runtime already sets the scene for heightened dread. you might set aside time to experience the dread instead of maybe quickly listening to a minute long episode wherever/whenever you are.

i luckily got to listen through without interruption and so i was only vaguely aware of the passing time in that approximate way one's body clock ever is. so as this episode came to a close, and mina asks van helsing to not reply if he agrees to meet for breakfast, the dread spiked

i didn't know how long was left in the episode -- the music was still lingering. how much time has it been? 27 minutes? it feels like it could be 27 minutes, but it also feels much shorter? can't be sure. and even if the runtime is nearly elapsed, we know from previous episodes that a telegram can take mere seconds, a journal entry just a few words. is van helsing going to be called away? is he going to cancel the meeting? is mina going to be left alone again with no answers and no friends? with the count and the 'bloofer lady' closing in? how long has the music been playing? holding my breath for the morse code. holding my breath for van helsing's voice. holding my breath for 'letter by hand'. holding my breath for 'letter unopened'...

"this episode featured..."

relief

when reading, you have the unread pages in your hand constantly telling you the story of the progress of the narrative's shape. unless every piece of ephemera of an epistolary story is set on its own separate page, you can see the next item in your eyesight. sure, even if they are on separate new pages, you can see through the printed page the shadows of the text on the next, giving you a subconscious hint of expectation.

with a film, you lose the tangibility of the physical object informing the narrative, but you have other sensory cues - something like a fade to black over the lingering music can manipulate your expectations of narrative completion (and either follow through or subvert them). if you're watching on a device, an accidental activation of the screen or cursor might give you a glimpse of the progression bar, again changing your narrative perception.

with an audio drama you're left with just the one sense as your guide. unless you're actively watching the progression bar as you're listening or actively watching a clock, you just don't know beyond your own imperfect perception of time what you're in for and fuck me the added anxiety because of that is just

whew

[voidscarredadjudicator]

At first I was like "what do you mean skeleton is a team for splatoween inklings and octolings don't have any fucking bones", but y'know? It does actually still make sense. Like. There's probably an in-universe horror movie about an Inkfish that was bullied all their life for never being able to go swim form only for them to realize after a doctor's visit that they have bones growing inside of them. Those bones aren't supposed to be there, but they are. There's a skeleton inside of them and it wants out. It's regarded as a classic akin to The Shining, with an equally vague ending. Movie analysts come up with dozens of theories; maybe it's a metaphor for an incurable disease, maybe the skeleton represents self-doubt or anxiety, maybe the main character was never actually an Inkfish to begin with.

Kaleb is incapable of taking this film seriously. The scene where the main character gets the photo of their x-ray that shows they have a skeleton just makes him laugh his ass off.

[birb--birb]

wisdom, pride, regret they're all connected and its making me cry

[vaguely-concerned]

just going about my day idly contemplating how some of the ways hawke can interact with a romanced anders are not at all unlike how they interact with leandra (and a bit of carver too, especially with a purple hawke), and then thought about my hawke in the timeline where he romances anders and was hit straight in the face with 'was he ever actually in love, or was he just desperately trying to renegotiate with his mother's ghost in any way he could' and now i need to lie down. this is the power of dragon age 2

[agalychnisspranneusroseus]

Thank god Sasha was confirmed bisexual, otherwise people would hc her as lesbian solely and exclusively because she's kind of a bitch.

[fatedroses]

A Judge and his Bodyguard - A Reaper, and his Voidsent.